that $3,000 is no hard and fixed sum, but that more should be raised to avoid the vexing problem of interest payments." A start was made, but the enterprise never did achieve a sound financial basis, and according to Toivo Merisalo, the Eveleth cooperative was the only such venture which had to terminate its activity under the terms of the Minnesota corporation laws.

To return to individual businessmen, August Piira had a watchmaker's shop early in Eveleth history, but he sold it in 1907 to John Kovaniemi. The latter kept the shop going for about a decade, at which time he opened an automobile sales and service business, to which he added once more, in 1941, a watchmaker's shop and jewelry store. Perry and Piiranen, Herman Stierna and William Wiitamäki, and M. Löfbacka have been hardware store owners. A. Jalkanen and T. Hytönen owned a soft drinks plant, and Victor Suonperä had a paint store. Helander & Hellman, together with John F. Hendrickson, kept a bakery, which had been founded by Leander Pulkkinen. Finnish tailor shops have been the business started by Herman Heino and continued by J. K. Salmi, as well as the shop run by Matti Stuurbecka, mentioned as the first tailor in Eveleth. Gusti Kleimola was a shoemaker active in Eveleth from the 1890s on.

In public life, the Finns did not generally try to begin to play a role until the period of World War I. To be sure, Jacob Saari had been elected mayor in 1910 (and served without interruption to 1918) and later served as president of the Peoples State Bank for four years. Also J. Kovaniemi and P. Peterson, both previously mentioned, served as members of the board of directors of the Eveleth bank.

A reflection of the way the Finns were moving ahead on a broader front becomes clear in the reports of the success their children began to achieve in school. Typical of such success was a report in the local newspapers in April 1927, which the Päivälehti used as source to report that "Sam Tuominen is the outstanding pupil graduating from the Eveleth High School. He has been elected valedictorian of his class. Second in the class is Marjorie Perham, who has been selected to make the welcoming address at the graduation exercises.

"The list of honor students in the Junior High School includes the names of several Finnish children. The highest grades of any were received by Ina Kinnunen. Other Finns on the A-list include Beatrice Laituri, Elma Tähti, Elsie Suomi, Laila Kangas, Irja Österlund, Toini Suomi, Neil Niemi, Sylvia Taipale, Margaret Peterson, while the B-list includes Sigrid Salmi, Irene Mäki, Ilma

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